Chapter 42 #2
My eyes widen. He can focus it.
Not broadly. Not for long. But enough.
He might be only a level two, but based on my minimal experience with the Force Domain, he must be very close to reaching the third level.
Still, his current state makes his abilities volatile. My only strategy is to make him use as much energy as possible while conserving mine. Then when I see an opening, I strike.
My thoughts are barely formed as he drives me backward through the arena, each attack warping the battlefield around me. Stone caves inward where the gravity strikes. Columns collapse. The floor buckles and fractures beneath the concentrated force.
I run around at full speed, making him change his target each time.
Until he focuses onto me and I become the target again.
As I leap over a shattered pillar, he increases the pull midair and sends me crashing down hard enough to crack the stone beneath my spine.
Blood fills my mouth.
The bastard is exhausting me without even laying a finger on me. My oh so smart strategy is working against me.
Fuck!
He raises both hands this time.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
The pressure doubles.
My body slams into the ground so hard my vision whites out.
My ribs grind against my lungs. My arms shake violently as I try to push up and fail. The stone beneath me splinters in widening fractures, my entire frame being driven deeper into it.
Zarek advances, breathing harder now. Sweat runs freely down his face.
He’s reaching his limit.
But so am I. With so many injuries, one after another, barely giving any time to heal before they’re split open again; before new ones form, I’m wasting most of my energy on simply existing.
I haven’t hit him once.
Not. Even. Once.
My fingers claw into the broken stone.
I force one arm upward. It trembles. Then collapses.
“Nyk! Get up! Please!” Moe’s voice echoes in my ears, even though my eardrums are halfway destroyed. Her words loop around my brain, triggering something inside of me.
I roar and drive both arms beneath me, every muscle in my body straining until veins stand out along my neck. My shoulders feel like they’ll tear apart. My legs lock. My knees rise from the floor.
The pressure bears down harder.
Seeing me withstand his power, his calm is broken. He lets out a rough snarl, his mouth twisted to the side.
I barely stand. My legs are wobbly. My mind a little foggy. But I stand.
I might not have some fancy abilities but I do have something he doesn’t have and he will never have.
I have something I’m fighting for.
Moe. She’s my one reason.
His eyes widen as I rise. And when his shock is at its zenith, I lunge.
He tries to throw me back, but his abilities have weakened significantly. The pressure still hurts, but it’s nowhere near what it was before.
No, this time, my resolve is stronger.
I keep moving, forcing myself forward through the crushing weight one staggering step at a time. Every movement feels like I’m dragging the weight of a thousand men behind me.
Ten steps… Nine… Eight…
With each step I take, his fatigue becomes more pronounced. His breathing turns ragged. The whites of his eyes turn crimson as he strains to use his force one last time.
Something gives way. It’s like a snap—perhaps some bone inside my body breaks, though that wouldn’t be a first. But within seconds, the pressure from before is gone. My limbs become light, my body finally able to move properly.
His energy is depleted.
I explode forward, my wounds knitting together just as I throw myself at him.
He tries one last desperate gravitational blast, but it’s mere air that slides through my hair.
With nothing to stop my advance, I slam into him with the full force of my body.
We crash together and tumble across the fractured stone. He strikes wildly, but his focus is gone now. No gravity. No invisible force. Just fists.
He might be a big male, but because of his domain, he must have never learned how to properly fight—body to body.
His fists are poor attempts at punches, never meeting their target.
I seize his wrist, wrench it aside, and drive my blade into his throat.
Hot blood spills over my hand.
His body jerks once. Twice. Then he stills.
Dead. He’s dead. Finally…
For several seconds I remain over him, chest heaving, every muscle trembling from the effort of pushing myself past what should have been my limit.
Then his body begins to dissolve.
Ash peels away from him in drifting ribbons, and through it I see the soul energy—far more than I’ve ever seen before. Dense, luminous clusters of white light gather in the air, brighter than any I have absorbed thus far.
Is it because he was at the edge of level three?
I sharpen my focus and pull the particles of energy toward me.
They resist harder this time, drawn upward by the realm’s invisible pull, but I focus and wrench several free. They drift toward me in glowing arcs and sink into my chest, my shoulders, my throat.
The energy crashes through me like lightning, making my entire body vibrate.
The strain in my muscles eases. My battered ribs ache less. My breathing deepens as the power settles into the channels I have spent weeks forging through meditation.
The quality of it is different. I can immediately feel the effects as all my injuries mend within seconds.
Nykander v’Kyro wins. You are awarded eight points.
Getting to my feet, I look around, my gaze immediately searching for Moe. But just as I spot her, the world starts spinning.
The arena begins to collapse around me, the ruined courtyard folding inward as reality tears itself apart once again.
When I open my eyes again, we’re back to the obelisk.
Moe rushes toward me, her eyes wide as she takes in my torn clothing and the crusted blood on my skin.
“You look awful,” she says with a shake of her head.
“He almost killed me,” I answer honestly.
“I was worried,” she admits. “But I knew you’d win.”
“Really?” I raise a brow. “How?”
“I trust you.” She shrugs. “I know you can do anything you put your mind to.”
My chest puffs with pleasure as I give her a smile.
“That’s a very nice compliment. Thank you.”
“And it’s not as if it’s that bad if we die. At least we’re together, no?”
“What?” I burst out before I realize she’s joking. She slaps my shoulder playfully as and she hooks her arm through my elbow.
“Look!” She points to the obelisk. “Progress.”
There, flashing in bright colors, my new status appears.
Nykander v’Kyro. Level Unassigned. +8 Ascension Points. Total points: 106
But it doesn’t stop there. Another message appears right underneath.
Congratulations! You are the fastest participant to reach one hundred points!
“What?” Moe gasps.
“That can’t be true!”
Until now I was complaining we were advancing way too slow. But this? The fastest participant to reach one hundred points?
Reward: ten tokens.
I blink. One would think that for breaking such a record one would receive a more…hefty reward.
“Ten tokens? That’s amazing!” Moe exclaims. “We’ll get you some new clothes. These are already too torn. Next time you fight you’re going to end up in your bare bottom and I’m not witnessing that, Nyk!”
I laugh nervously. “Come on, it’s not that bad.”
“It’s very bad,” she replies. “That poor shirt of yours is better suited as a cleaning rag.”
“Moe!” I feign offense.
The lines have already disappeared as we move away from the obelisk, joking around on how to use our grand reward.
“If I get a new set of clothes, you get one too! And shoes.”
“Deal,” she agrees enthusiastically.
We head toward the market, the mood much improved.
And I still cannot believe it—I broke a record.
Me. Talentless me.